Utley makes an appearance

Posted by Mandy Housenick | January 25, 2010 at 07:25 PM

Phillies all-star second baseman Chase Utley strolled into the media room at Citizens Bank Park on Monday afternoon and addressed beat writers for the first time since the club's heartbreaking loss to the Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series in November.

Normally, Utley would sit at the podium in the media room. But on Monday, he wanted no part of that when it came time to address less than a dozen of us.

"Do I have to go up there, really?" he said to members of the team's public relations staff.

Utley's just not that formal. It's not his thing. He's low key and prefers to avoid attention in any way possible.

So Utley sat in a chair and we surrounded him in the form of a horseshoe.

When the chatter in the room started to dwindle after about 11 minutes, Utley said, "Wow, that's it? Man, this was easy."

Not so fast. For the next 12 minutes, there were legit questions mixed in there with small talk.

Finally, as time started to wind down, Utley was asked about Mark McGwuire and the steroid issue. But, as Utley is usually good for, he didn't have too much to say on the issue.

"I think I’m in a different position because I came up in an era where there’s testing and it’s not allowed and if you get caught, you get in trouble," he said. "Guys that have come up with me, it’s not even relevant. Apparently, back then it was part of baseball. I don’t judge those guys for doing what they did. But I do applaud Major League Baseball for putting together a program that keeps steroids out of the game."

The conversation continued and Utley was asked if he would vote for guys such as Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro and McGwire for the Hall of Fame.

"I don’t think I’m deserving of a Hall of Fame vote," Utley said. "You’d have to do a lot of thinking about it. It’s something I don’t really try to get involved in because it’s really not part of my life."

Currently, members of the media/Baseball Writers Association of America who have covered a major league team for 10 years and been in the BBWAA for that period of time, get a HOF vote.

Surely Utley will be on the ballot after he retires. It's hard to believe he won't have worthy numbers. It's even harder to think of him as someone who would use steroids.

It's something I can't picture. He works too hard and has too much pride in what he does to cheat.